Taper for Stillwater Half Marathon

I am in taper mode for the Stillwater Half Marathon.  This will be my first half, and only my third race ever (I did a 5k and 8k early this year).  I feel pretty good about my chances of going under 2 hours (my goal).  I've been feeling good about my running, doing the same routes over and over and seeing how my times are dropping.  Also, my times have been fairly good the last few weeks, staying close or under 9 min a mile.  My best is a 5 mile run on the Gateway trail that averaged 8:16 a mile!  That is really fast for me, and I didn't feel like I was working to hard.  It could have been the foam roller and yoga I did early in the day (this was different from my normal routine).

This morning I got up early to eat and run just to practice for the race.  Since I usually run at night I thought a few morning runs would get me accustomed to running in the morning.  It was great, I saw two turtles near a lake and a great sunrise.  Thursday I will run early again and I'm looking forward to it.

I still can't believe I'm running, thanks ChiRunning (and to a lesser degree Pose Method) for helping my form.  And also all the bloggers who post race reports, hearing the stories is a great way to prepare for the race.

This week I finished my 12 weeks on the Core Performance workout routine.  I really liked it, the weights routine was fast and effective; combined with the stretching/recover/pre-hab workouts I felt like my body was getting an all around workout.  I'm going to start the Core Performance Endurance workout after the Stillwater race.  I also need to decide if I'm going to get back in the pool and when to do my trail running (and I need to find a place close to me with trails).  I'd also like to start doing more barefoot walking.  Whenever I get to the Gateway Trail I end my runs doing a cool down walk barefoot.  My feet are incredible tender, but I think they are starting to toughen up.  They sure feel refreshed after walking in gravel and the cool grass (but not so much when the asphalt is hot).